As a 13-year-old backpacking with my dad, I’ll never forget the contentment I felt as I hiked up the rocky trail alongside the raging Hunter Creek. From that first backpacking trip in 1973, I fell.
Monday, May 1, offers a slight window for one of the most exclusive color-changing, leaf-peeping shows in America, and the urgency is to book now, if you want to spend the nights under the simmering leaves and stars of the White River National Forest, some of the most sought after and majestic in the nation for groves of Aspen trees.
Permits are now required for overnight stays in the most-visited areas of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness near Aspen year round. Acquiring those permits online through advanced reservations begins Wednesday.